Tell Me--What Are You Reading?
The Scent of Old Books, the Glue of New Books, the Feel of the Page, the Click of a Keyboard, the Tap Against a Screen, the Glow of a Dim Light After Midnight....
Which books are stacked on your bedside table?
Or do you read on something digital, an e-reader, a Kindle a laptop….?
Do you have a bedside table, at all, anymore? A body, a bed, a room, a table, a book, a window to gaze out of…?
What’s the strangest book you’ve read, lately? What’s the most pop, most glossy cover, blood-and-fire, sex-and-death-and-money bestseller airport and beach read? What’s the oldest, most dusty, pages-falling-out, spine splitting, thrift store find?
Are you writing back to the book, in the margins?
Do you pause at a box of free cast-offs on the corner, the post-consumerism waste, the kipple of fallen capitalism, as Philip K Dick called a certain kind of clutter and dust in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, and when you look over the top of that rain-soaked free-box, do you see books that catch your eye?
Have you ever read a book you love so much, so instantly, that you have to put it down and take a walk because it’s just too much, coming on too strong, too right, too good, too funny or smart or relevant or beautiful? What was that book?
Are you reading short story collections? How do the stories speak to each other, on a scale from “not at all” to “completely”?
Books are promoted, at times, with what one author (Joyce Thompson) has called “the shelf life of lettuce,” but books themselves last through wars, lives. They’re with us.
What are you reading?
I hope you can hold on to some reading time.
What are you reading?
M
Currently making my way through the books on my uni modules -- ‘Crime & Punishment’, ‘A ClockWork Orange’, ‘The Secret Agent’, ‘Ripley Underground’, ‘The Monk’, and some poetry by Swift, Pope, Finch, and Montague, to name a few.
In between the required reading for my course, I’m currently hopping between books by Martin Amis, J. G. Ballard and Dennis Cooper.
The award for spiciest cover has got to go to pretty much half of the copies of the Dennis Cooper books I have -- ‘Closer’ being the definitive winner, perhaps.
Love the term Kipple from DADOES! I need to find a way to incorporate it more into everyday life.
P. S. Are there currently any paperback copies of ‘Clown Girl’ available on your site? Would love to add it to my soon to be read pile of books.
The books that I couldn't put down in recent memory were:
1) Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. The head authority in this novel in regards to 80s pop culture and building of the virtual world were impressive. The novel references the video game Zork and and Rush's album 2112 as important plots points. Even with deep cuts like those the novel doesn't seem overwhelming to anyone who might not be an expert in nerd culture. Ernest makes everything very accessible.
2) The Martian by Andy Weir also was a book that I couldn't put down. The balance between the tension and comedy in this novel is excellent. It keeps the stress of the narrator's situation from becoming overwhelming and it keeps you wanting to know what happens next. The head authority in this novel makes you feel like you are part of NASA's mission team. It doesn't feel overwhelming or come across as mansplaing. If a novel is too much Andy's short story "The Egg" is wonderful. It is very thought provoking and has generated several popular YouTube videos about it.
On my bedside table is The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. The novel is there because I am reading a chapter or two a night to my daughter Clocking in at 189 pages I am impressed by how much is accomplished by the author in such a short period of time. I've read all the Chronicles of Narnia books before but I have developed a deeper appreciation on how much classic children's novels can do in such a limited number of pages when compared to popular adult fiction.
My short story collection of the moment is Burning Chrome by William Gibson. "The Gernsback Continuum" short story is a really interesting and eye opening concept. As a reader that appreciates certain art aesthetics it is a very interesting take on the consumption of too much any one thing.